Over 400 years ago, the area south-east of today’s Shiodome, Tokyo, was covered by a swamp (Shiodome means “keep out the tide"). The marshland was drained in 1603 by the order of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and, 50 years later, his descendants built on the reclaimed land a villa and a lake fed with water from Tokyo Bay. This was the beginning of one of the most important Japanese gardens from Tokyo, Hama-rikyu.

Today, Hama-rikyu holds the record of being the only Japanese garden from Tokyo with seawater and during the tide changes the water level is permanently controlled by sluice gates.

Hama-rikyu Gardens, Tokyo

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Okayama castle original yagura, Tsukimi Yagura